1. Technical Field
This is an apparatus and method for monitoring syrup and container inventories during a beverage production run, and ending the production run with substantially no wasted syrup or containers, more particularly a syrup recovery system for insertion into a beverage production system.
2. Background Information
To produce soft drinks and other beverages, many beverage companies have beverage production systems that spread across thousands of square feet of plant space. Simply put, in many existing systems for producing carbonated soft drinks, concentrated, pre-mixed beverage syrups are first channeled from syrup supply tanks through pipes to blend tanks where they are mixed with appropriate levels of drinking water. Carbon dioxide is bubbled through the diluted syrups and the soft drink then flows through lines to a filler system. At the filler, bottles or cans on an automated line are filled with exact amounts of the soft drink.
There are certain requirements during this soft drink production process. To maintain product quality, measurements throughout this production process must be exact. Secondly, product tanks and lines which hold product must be absolutely sanitary so the drinks do not become contaminated with dirt, bacteria or the like. Third, unused syrup or soft drink, some of which is diluted syrup washed out by periodic cleanings of the system, must be carefully disposed of to protect the environment. Though it sounds innocuous to a layman, high doses of sugar from waste soft drink can upset the ecological balance in, for example, a stream to which undertreated industrial waste effluent empties. Syrup increases biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in a discharge stream, which upsets the balance of animals and plants indigenous to the stream. Since many bottlers must pay by the gallon to treat their industrial waste, it is to their benefit to keep wasted soft drink syrup to a minimum.
If beverage production can be made more exact and controlled, a small amount of syrup can be conserved with each production run. The syrup recovery system of the present invention does allow the conservation of a certain amount of concentrated syrup during the production process. The recovered syrup is sanitary because it is captured at the outset within the production system. This recovered syrup can be made into soft drinks, which decreases product costs. It also reduces a beverage company""s wastewater treatment costs, and in turn helps in a small way to protect the environment. Although the amount of syrup recovered by the present syrup recovery system and method is ordinarily only a few gallons per bottling run, total savings over a one year period can be significant. The syrup recovery system of the present invention also enhances quality control by allowing a plant operator to more precisely control syrup measurements during the production process.
With this syrup recovery system, a plant operator can more precisely forecast the number of containers that will be needed for ending a production run. Also, a plant operator desiring to fill a known number of containers can automatically drain from a syrup supply tank only the exact amount of syrup needed for that particular run. This decreases or eliminates wasted containers and reduces labor costs. This syrup recovery system can be inserted into an existing beverage production system, or it can be incorporated into a new beverage production system being designed or constructed.
The present invention is an apparatus and method for automatically gauging container and syrup requirements for beverage production. This syrup recovery method for gauging container and syrup inventories during beverage production, when syrup inventory is limited and container inventory is not limited, comprises the following steps: (a) transferring remaining syrup in a syrup supply tank into a syrup recovery tank in a beverage production system through at least one distribution line; (b) pushing the remaining syrup in the distribution line into the syrup recovery tank; (c) dropping the level in the syrup recovery tank down to a pre-set level; (d) loading and measuring the number of containers between a filler and a depalletizer on the conveyor belt system; and (e) allowing the containers to proceed into the filler.
When container inventory is limited and syrup inventory is not limited, the syrup recovery method herein comprises the steps of: (a) dropping the level in a syrup recovery tank down to a pre-set level and maintaining it at that level; (b) loading remaining containers onto a conveyor belt system, which leads to a filler; (c) receiving input from a depalletizer confirming that the remaining containers have been loaded to the conveyor system; (d) stopping the flow of syrup from a syrup supply tank to a syrup recovery tank; and (e) pushing remaining syrup in at least one distribution line, which leads from the syrup supply tank, into the syrup recovery tank.